Thu | Mar 28, 2024

Investigators arrest key opposition leader

Published:Thursday | August 22, 2019 | 12:10 AM

NEW DELHI (AP):

Federal investigators have arrested a key opposition Indian National Congress party leader at his home.

Palaniappan Chidambaram was taken into custody on suspicion of conspiring with a Mauritius-based firm to illegally obtain money for his son’s company while he was India’s finance minister in 2006.

Abhishek Dayal, a spokesman for the Central Bureau of Investigation, confirmed the arrest.

Investigators took Chidambaram from his New Delhi home on Wednesday night and drove him to the Central Bureau of Investigation’s office.

His son Karti Chidambaram has already been named as a defendant in the money-laundering case involving three billion rupees ($43 million).

Chidambaram denies the allegation and accuses Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government of pursuing a political vendetta.

He suffered a setback when a court on Tuesday rejected his bail plea in the case.